Sometimes I worry that I've lost the plot. My twitchin' muscles tease my flippant thoughts.
I never really dreamed of heaven much until we put him in the ground, but it's all I'm doing now
- listening for patterns in the sound of an endless static sea. ~ Conor Oberst

February 26, 2007

With the stability of Robin Williams as comedian-turned presidential candidate and Laura Linney to give this dramatic credibility, this is a good and timely film. This past summer Rollingstone ran a cover with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert as running mates for the 2008 elections. Williams, plays the fictional comedian, Tom Dobbs, who is convinced to try to run as an independent by fans. His writer (Lewis Black) and manager (Christopher Walken) run his campaign like a show, and come election day, he wins. The plot is complicated by a conspiracy, which works as a sort of minor diversion so that the political and humorous points can be made. The film is funny and fun to watch, and the plot is not over done by throwing a glitch in to drive the plot. A truthful and at times harsh critique of our current political system. The film makes great points about how the system is entrenched in the status quo, and that it might actually take either a computer glitch or a for politics to become entertainment for the system to actually change. The film doesn't side with either cynicism/apathy or activism, but opens the audiences view to the choices available, and it is a choice.

We are lonesome animals. We spend all of our life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say-and to feel- ‘Yes, that is the way it is, or at least that is the way I feel it.’ You’re not as alone as you thought. —John Steinbeck